Wico reproduction shafts with 1.5" balltops!

[armi0024]

I have been working with one of the guys over on the KLOV forums to produce new shafts and ball tops for the original Wico joysticks. 35mm or 7/16 ball tops are too small, 40mm ball tops are two big, so we produced 1.5", exactly.  For now most of these tops will be used for press fits onto Wico shaft rebuilds.  In the not to distant future, they will be available with 6mm threading from our store. 

No seams on these bad boys, just like all our custom balls have been for months.  Check out the ball tops and KLOV thread here:
http://forums.arcade-museum.com/showthread.php?t=169240

Balltops shown here:

[RayB]

Will you make 4" ones?

[Paul Olson]

The 1.5" is the ball diameter. They are reproing the 4"sticks. We should have pricing information soon.

[gatordad]

Nice

You know I said to myself you you fist started talking about these on KLOV that I bet these get done before those rollie leafs are in stock.

Any update on those?

I have a multi williams panel just begging for those.

[opt2not]

Hopefully you guys do well enough on these that you can justify a hallowed out version.
I'd love a set of hallowed 4" shafts with threaded tops for a bling-bling robotron CP.

I'm holding out for those!

[boardjunkie]

Hallowed be thy joystick.....

[Paul Olson]

Just wanted to let everyone know that these are available now. Mine showed up today. A long search is finally over.

[armi0024]

I need to talk to Wolfeel about his plans. I will probably be doing hollow Wico shafts soon.

However, on a VERY interesting side note.  I took one of these ball tops and put it on a JLW Bat top shaft and it was 4 way heaven.... I know that JLW's are leafs, but it basically made a perfect Ms Pac/Galage replacement stick... I'll take pictures later.

[mrclean]

This got me thinking... It amazes me that no one reproduced the wico leaf switches for the actual joysticks... The shafts can be cleaned by putting the shaft into the chuck of a drill, but in terms of the metal leafs on joysticks once they bend / get weak it's curtains.


Before and after cleaning:
before:


After:


So my suggestion would be for your next reproduction someones gotta make the leafs ! And I know that the cheap chinese knock off ones that bob sells but they don't seem to fit / work well with original wicos. but kuddos to you for remaking the 4'' shafts since those are much more difficult to find for Robotron 2084 etc.. Alot of people don't realize despite the fact that they might have 30+ year old crap on it, they can look like new again with minimal effort. However I do understand some are beyond repair I.E. Cigg burns / cuts etc.. but if you have a cruddy joystick clean it !

[D_Harris]

if you have a cruddy joystick clean it !

What do you use to clean yours?

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

[shilmover]

I need to talk to Wolfeel about his plans. I will probably be doing hollow Wico shafts soon.

However, on a VERY interesting side note.  I took one of these ball tops and put it on a JLW Bat top shaft and it was 4 way heaven.... I know that JLW's are leafs, but it basically made a perfect Ms Pac/Galage replacement stick... I'll take pictures later.

Bryan,

I really need one hollow shaft with a red ball (need to put a button in it), and a green ball.  For my MultiVector.

[mrclean]

What do you use to clean yours?

Darren Harris
Staten Island, New York.

Hello fellow New Yorker! Simply put it in the end of your chuck of your drill.. and spin it, holding it with a magic eraser a dash of water or if it's really tough to get out use a sponge that has the green more abrasive backing (sorta like a light brillo pad) just hold it and spin / use your drill.

Like this :

[jasonbar]

I need to talk to Wolfeel about his plans. I will probably be doing hollow Wico shafts soon.

Hey Bryan-

See if you can lean on Wolfeel to sell just the threaded red balls--I'm dyin' for some!!!

Thanks,
-Jason

[armi0024]

I need to see what's up, I may do a run of just ball tops

[armi0024]

Bumping an old thread, we just started stocking these and they look GREAT!

[Well Fed Games]

Not seeing these on the site. Linky?

Also, what are the chances of 4" hollow/light-able Wico shaft replacements?

[opt2not]

Not seeing these on the site. Linky?

Also, what are the chances of 4" hollow/light-able Wico shaft replacements?

I've been barking up that tree for a while now...

[armi0024]

They are hollow and lightable, we are having server issues and so we will be launching our new store.  This has been going on for about 2 weeks causing us to delay posting any new products.  I expect the new site to launch before Sunday.

Of note www.paradisearcadeshop.com will still work, but emulators.paradisearcadeshop.com will be a custom done landing page for people who are building mame and other emulation based machines.

The other sites will be:
classics.paradise
fgc.paradise
pinball.paradise

We felt with over 900 products this might help things a little.   The site will evolve after launch, we were pushed upna bit because of server problems, but we hope people find it useful.